My two cents...

I've seen something rumbling just below the surface, and I want to talk about it. You're here, so obviously you care what I have to say. I don't promise that my two cents are worth two cents, but I do promise that they are my two cents, not borrowed ones. Stick with me folks, it'll all tie together eventually (maybe).

Here is my take on our current economic mess. I have been saying for months now that I am fed up with people not taking responsibility for their part in this mess. I really wanted one of the candidates fore presidency to stand up there and say that the mess we are in is our own fault. But no, they want to blame Wall Street and banks and lending institutions and mortgage companies. I want someone to stand up and say it is our own greedy fault. We, who took out too much debt, who bought stuff on credit cards, who bought a house too big for our own use, who had to not only keep up with the Jones' but surpass them...it is our fault. I have seen an underground movement starting over the past year or so, and I think it is finally coming to the surface. I've seen family after family, mom after mom, blogger after blogger talking about a desire to return to a simpler life. Families have grown tired of the excess spending, and are starting to save more. People are more interested in "going green" and "reduce, reuse, recycle" now. Moms want their kids to be responsible with their things and money, and not just buy all willy-nilly. I hear the talking heads on "news" shows talk about the consumer fear that is driving our economy ever lower, and I don't think it is fear that is doing this at all. I think it is that we have finally come to our senses and realized how out of control we had allowed ourselves to get. We want to buy with money we actually have. We want to pay off our debts. We want to have a quieter life. And the media hasn't caught on to that yet. The tv shows haven't realized that yet. Hollywood doesn't see it yet, but they all will.

We haven't seen the end of this economic fall yet. Oh no, we still have the credit card debt to hit. And once that does, we will see a bleaker newscast than any we've seen in our lifetimes. However, we will see some wisdom finally coming back into our homes. I think this will be a good thing, nay, a great thing for our nation. A return to the values that are true and lasting. A return to family gatherings, and memory making, and healthy consumption. I'm not afraid of being broke. (She says, oh so naively....yeah, I know, what do I truly know about being broke?) Who needs stuff anyway? So I might have to say goodbye to television and internet access and lattes and crazy Christmases. Oh well. Bon voyage. I'm hoping I'll be saying goodbye to that and saying hello to game nights and homemade bread and canned jelly and sitting by the tree telling stories and gathering close to my loved ones. Here's hoping we all have a simple, lovely holiday this year...with many more to come. Think back over your favorite holiday memories...how many of them involve a gift you got, or a thing you bought? Most of mine are things we did together, activities we did, songs that were sung, hikes that we took. The only gift that stands out in my mind is one my mom made me a year when we had no money. So, instead of camping out in that line at 4:00am on "Black Friday", why don't you stay warm in your bed, then get up, make your own coffee at home, and start writing your ideas down on what to do with your family that will be a lasting memory. Who needs another digital frame anyway? Or another sweater? Or another Bratz doll? Honestly, do any of us actually NEED any things? Or do we all long for and need someone to listen to us, someone to laugh with us, someone to let us know we aren't alone in this crazy world. Put away the credit card, get out the heavy coat, and take your loved ones on a walk. You'll thank me for it...no, better yet, you'll thank yourself.

So there ya have it, my two cents. Think we'll be using those more now and tossing them in wishing wells less?

Pinch of this....Dash of that...

• *From my xanga account....
  Landon turns 2 today. A bit of me panics when I think about that. I wish there was a better way to say that time is flying by, because everyone says that and it means nothing now, but it is. Time is flying by. And I panic because I feel like I am missing so much of it. What a blessing to be home with my kids all day, but also what a curse. Kind of like being raised in a Christian home. You just always know about God, so it is less of a big deal. Well same with being a stay at home mommy...I see them all the time, so it isn't as big of a deal as if I only saw them a few hours a day. Not that I am complaining, oh no, not at all. I wouldn't trade this job for anything. Nothing. Not a single thing. I just realize that I blink and they are grown. He says his own name now. He likes to walk around saying, "I am a robot". He cracks up any time he sees a picture of his Sissy. He is my heartbreaker.
  
• God is teaching me something these days, I'm just not sure what it is. I think He's preparing me for a future ministry. I'd like to request a little more clarity though. I have had a lot of hurting women cross my path lately, and I see my way clearer and clearer to a counseling profession in the future. I feel like I am failing them all, but I see them, I hear them, I'm willing to help. And doesn't that count for something? I don't know. (This is all mental rambling that will not make sense to most of you, so don't worry if you are bored or lost or just plain old annoyed by it all.)
  
• Although I didn't vote for Obama...I consider myself a conservative democrat, but I wrestled back and forth and finally had to vote McCain for the abortion factor...I cried when he won. Not because I was upset, nope, because I was so proud of our country. I have a lot of african american friends, I have experienced racism being directed at them while I was with them, and I have seen how ugly racism can be in the strangers and family and friends around me. I was so proud to see Barack and his wife and his two gorgeous daughters walk across that stage and take their place as First Family of the USA. I don't know what his administration will do, I don't know where our country will head, but I will be praying faithfully for he and his family, and I will have mini-heartbursts (good things, not to be confused with heart attacks...bad things) every time I think of that moment when it was announced that he had won.
  
• I painted last night. It felt good. I fixed a few paintings I did a while ago and had just hanging in the utility room, waiting to be worked on again, and I got a few other ones ready to be painted. I am thinking of starting a baby/children's art business. I use the term business lightly. I'm thinking of making art work and selling it. Name ones, cars and trucks and rockets and airplanes ones. Princesses and crowns and bugs and animals ones. You know, those adorable ones that you can buy for your kid's room. I'm going to do a few as Christmas gifts for friends, and get their feedback on them. I'll ask them to spread the word, and I may put some on etsy.com.
  
• I have baby lust on and off. For those of you who don't know what that is, relax....it isn't some horrible thing. I just mean that I have been wanting another child for a bit now. I go back and forth a little bit, but I do know that I am not done having children and that I would like another one at some point. I'm not getting younger, my current kids aren't getting younger, so I don't want to wait too much longer before adding to our family.
  
• I'm making a lot of gifts this year. I hope they don't turn out tacky or cheesy. I hate cheesy homemade gifts. Does that make me a bad person?
  
• Tuesday night I was out until 2 in the morning, laughing and chatting with my girlfriends. We started out at 7:30 in a MOPS steering meeting, and then ended up in a Dunkin Donuts. It was much needed. And hubby is still unemployed (tell my baby lusting self that this is a huge reason to wait....)so he got up and let me sleep in this morning. Yeah him! See, I am trying to see the positives in the whole husband is unemployed and around 24/7 and plays video games until I could scream and isn't really trying to find a job too hard and won't fix the hole in the bathroom that needs to be patched so I can paint it. BUT, I do get to sleep in now and then (well, does 9:20 count as sleeping in? And now and then = 3 times since Aug. 9th), and I am able to grocery shop all by myself now, and I can get together with girlfriends (provided he doesn't crash the party by deciding to come along) fairly often now.

Jolt

Yesterday I had a bit of a jolt. I was digging through my stationary drawer to find a card to mail to my friend when my fingers grabbed hold of several folded up papers. I couldn't remember what it was, so I opened it. Le sigh. It was the emails I had printed out July 24th, 2007. The ones between my husband and the woman he was having an affair with. The ones that had a few pictures of the two of them at a club, dancing and laughing.
Here's the kicker....
They made me sad. They hit me in the gut again. They angered me. But only a very little bit. And only for a short time. I didn't curl up on the floor, crying and clutching at my stomach like I would have a year ago. I didn't doubt myself and my looks/ability to love/years of giving to him/future like I would have a year ago. I didn't start rubbing at my heart and having random attacks of struggling to breathe like I would have a year ago.
My heart is healing.
And my marriage is healing.
And my God is an awesome one.

Lazarus, Come Forth....

Copied from my Xanga account. Because I'm lazy, that's why.

Okay, so this is nowhere close to as miraculous as what Jesus did when he brought his dead friend, Lazarus, back from the dead....but I am trying to resurrect something. That's right, I am attempting to breathe life back into my Xanga account. So it wasn't exactly dead....I was still reading my subcriptions daily...it was more in a deep coma. And my pinkie toe is starting to move again. That's right, we have a wiggle of an appendage.

So how to catch everyone back up? I'll just start blurting stuff out and see if you all can garner anything from all the word vomit on the page. Brad is still unemployed. It started out as mind-numbingly annoying, having him here ALL THE TIME, but now I am getting used to being able to make solo trips to the grocery store, go on outtings with my girlfriends without a child attached, and having him here to run interference with the kids. I can admit that I am going to miss the extra hands/help/ears/eyes when he does go back to work. Be praying for him. He doesn't want to go back into the kind of work he was doing before, so he is at a point in his life where he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. He doesn't think he can go back to school (well, more like he doesn't want to/doesn't want to pay for it) to learn something else, so he's kind of at a loss as to what path to take next. He's been in a funk, not going out much, not taking care of himself, not making any sort of improvements, and I let him for awhile, but now I need to help him get his act together again. I just don't know how to do that without becoming naggy wife. He hasn't been looking for any jobs, and I am starting to get a teensy bit worried. He is getting unemployment for the time being, and we are able to pay bills, but we are on a tight budget (and I foresee that Christmas will be a lot smaller this year). Anyway, just pray that God will show him what his passion can be, and that the right job will come along for him.

We went last month to watch the movie Fireproof. It is a Christian movie about a couple on the verge of divorce, and, although slightly cheesy as all Christian movies are (you know that is true, so don't fuss at me!), it was excellent. We had some wonderful discussion afterwards, and our church has done a monthlong Fireproof marriage series which has been of great benefit to us. I have seen marked improvement in our relationship with each other. We still have a long way to go, but I have a lot more hope that we'll get there. And all the glory goes to God for that.

I'm attempting to look at this upcoming winter season with new eyes. Usually I dread the cold, the gray, the whole being stuck indoors for months on end, but this year I'm trying to approach it differently. I am looking at it as a time of cocooning. A time to draw close to my family and make family traditions and little home improvements. There is nothing else calling my time right now...no bright sunny days, no fireworks, no picnics, no playdates at the park....no, now is the time to make those holiday memories that last a lifetime, and paint that bathroom, and bake. I won't say that I will get through this winter without the blues, but I am really trying to change my attitude about it all.

I've been attempting to go through my crawlspace stuff in order to clear out more room in my house and simplify things. So far I've discovered that I need about 4 more bookcases. LOL. I have books aplenty, books galore. I heart books. And I have weeded through them, discarding (and by discarding I mean that I've placed them in the yard sale piles) the silly fiction ones, the quick read ones, the easy come easy go ones, but I have many, many more good books that I can't part with. I long for a library in my home. Floor to ceiling bookcases, sliding ladders, big comfy armchairs, a fireplace, and why not....a minifridge and expresso machine. However, I live in what is commenly referred to as a "lovely little house" or "sweet cottage", so there are no libraries to be found in my cape cod home. I'm going to have to rearrange my house a bit and fit in a bookcase here or there somehow. I just have to. :) I have come across a few things in my crawlspace that make me smile. The two shoeboxes full of letters between Brad and I. The volleyball shirt. The scrapbook I started of our relationship. The jar of Bolivian dirt that I gathered from my favorite places in Bolivia the day before we left there after highschool graduation. The photos of Emilie as a baby (she's 6 now, 6?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Where did that time go?). The letters from my students when I was a teacher. Good stuff. I need to make a "Need a Smile?" bin.

MOPS is going really well. We have over 30 moms. My new position is Spiritual Leader, and although I cringe a bit every time someone introduces me as that (who me, a spiritual leader? But I'm just as screwed up as everyone else!!!), I am learning that God has a way to use my hurts and mistakes. I see that He is preparing me for something, and I am getting excited about whatever that may eventually be. Our church is always saying "God doesn't waste a hurt", and I can see how the past several years have merely been shaping me and changing my heart for good. I wouldn't erase my experiences, my mistakes, my hurts for anything. I'm a better person today because of them. I've become a table leader on Wednesday nights too, and I also led a table during our latest women's conference at church. I told a bit of "my story" to them, and it was a good time of crying and helping each other. Not to say that I have anything figured out yet, or that I am a good example of how to live your life, or that I am perfect, but I am slowly changing. I still need to do a better job of praying and reading my Bible. I still need to cut things out of my life. I still need to love my neighbors, my family, my friends better. I have a looooong way to go.

Landon will turn 2 in a few weeks. He is starting the terrible twos nonsense. Screaming, hitting himself in the head when he doesn't get his way, spitting at his sister. Yep, my little mellow man is not so mellow these days. But he is still a cuddle bug. And I adore him.

Emilie has a front tooth that WILL NOT COME OUT. It has been loose for forever, and we've all tugged, tied strings to, had her bite into apples, etc....but it refuses to budge. She is the most snaggle-toothed creature I've ever seen. I think she's beautiful, but her toothy grin is turning my stomach these days. LOL

All right. That's enough resurrection for one day. More to come.

Dreams and lack of sleep...

I can't write these days. Too much inner turmoil, not enough privacy, too many decisions to make...I don't know what the answer is. Probably all of the above plus more. I have the same problem with sleep lately. I lie there, in bed, my body exhausted, but my brain mulling over options and ideas, dreams and goals. I have a dream (not a nighttime, while you are sleeping kind of dream, I mean a life dream) that keeps coming up lately. I dream of living a much more simple life. On a small farm. My children, myself. A few animals. A life of church and family. Laughter, board games, laundry on the line in summer. No television, a smaller life. A life where things don't matter anymore, and people do. A life of giving to others. Of homemade bread, and canning. A life of fireflies, and shoveling snow, and an occassional trip to Starbucks. A life of reading in the evenings, and feeding the goats (chickens? horse? cow?), and walking with our dog loose from his leash. The life I had growing up (somewhat....then it was a monkey and jungles and riding on top of the jeep while swarms of blue butterflies fly from small puddles along the dirt road), and the life I want for my kids. I'm tired of this one. This craziness of "getting ahead" and buying the latest gadgets and keeping up with the neighbors and Hannah Montana and PS3 and get a new car and more and more and more. I want my kids in a country school. I want to garden.

I told my mom about this dream I keep running across, and she said, "You need to let that go, you know you will never have that with Brad." And my heart broke. And she's right. He will never want that life.

I'm struggling in my marriage. I'm annoyed with myself for saying that. Not because it is an untruth, but because I have said it for so many years. Year after year after year. I would avoid talking to me....I've become that wife who always complains about her husband, talks about what a struggle it is, and then doesn't do anything about it. Ugh, I don't like her.

Head's up...I'm going to do some more husband complaining. It won't be pretty. And I won't apologize for it. He lost his job 3 weeks ago. And I can't be the supportive considerate wife because it was his fault. It was through his own dishonest actions that he lost his job. So I am angry. And if he were to learn from his mistake, strive to change and do better, then I could be the supportive considerate wife. But he hasn't. He doesn't. He has put out maybe 8 resumes (his figure, I think it is considerably less than that) in the past 3 weeks. He hasn't ramped up work on the house, or started working out, or gotten more involved in church, or taken his children anywhere. He is doing nothing with his time. So when I say that I am tired of him being in my home during the day, it is more than simple annoyance. Saturday I installed a new mailbox, and took all of the old caulk off of the tub and shower surround. Then I put new caulk in. Then I grocery shopped. And made dinner. What did he do? He sat in the living room, using the company laptop that he has yet to return, and looked up information and videos about people using Ouiji boards. I kid you not. He skipped church Sunday. He is gambling again...with what very little money we have left.
I can't change him. I can't make him a better person. I can't make him want to be different. I am thisclose to pulling a Pontius Pilate and washing my hands of him. And I think that would probably be the best for everyone involved, including him.

Labor Day

In honor of Labor Day, here is a meme from Rocks in My Dryer...

How long were your labors?
Emilie: 26 hours
Landon: 17 hours
Here's hoping if I ever am blessed with another child that the trend of shorter labors continues...

How did you know you were in labor?
Contractions started, and got closer together.

Where did you deliver?
In the hospital with both of them. I have to admit that the hospital I delivered Emilie at, in Ohio, was much nicer than the one I had Landon in here in PA.

Drugs?
You bet your bottom dollar. I went as long as I could with both of them, and then happily got the epidural. Thank God for wise people who developed those. With Landon, I had it twice...the first time it only numbed half of my body. Grrr. And no, half is NOT better than none at all.

C-section?
No, and I am so glad. I REALLY did not want one.

Who delivered?
The doctor. I liked Emilie's doctor much more than Landon's, but no matter, they both got here safely.

Anger

I am so angry lately. It bubbles just below the surface, begging to be released. I've never been an angry person, a bitter person, one to complain....and a friend of mine make an off-hand remark the other day about me not speaking on a certain topic because I would be "sour grapes". She didn't mean it to be harsh. She was just speaking what she saw. Her truth. And I have become that. I'm a downer. This week I have asked a few close friends to pray for me. To pray that God would show me, very clearly, what direction He would have me take. Anyone who has prayed this.....do you, deep down, really hope that it is one certain direction? I keep praying that His will would be done....but tagging onto that this phrase, "But God, you know that if you want me to go that other direction, you will have to change my heart and mind". Is that wrong? I'm just so tired of hurting and being angry and growing bitter. I want to be light-hearted again. And happy. And I want to sing. I want to be a joy-giver to people, not an emotion drainer.

I leave Saturday for a week with my in-laws. Time will be spent with both sets. I am really not looking forward to this at all. Keep those prayers going for me.

Ugh.